Welcome to issue 29 of JavaScript Weekly. There was a link to a video last week that wouldn't have worked for you because Google went crazy over having Google Analytics params on the URL (doh). So sorry about that, I've included it again with a working URL today.

Headlines

Book Review of 'JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition'—
Michael Ross reviews O'Reilly JavaScript behemoth, 'JavaScript: The Definitive Guide.' It clocks in at 1100 pages which are organized into 22 chapters and aims to be a comprehensive review and reference for the language. Michael gives it a solid 9 out of 10.

JS2Coffee: A JavaScript to CoffeeScript Compiler—
JS2Coffee is an open source JavaScript to CoffeeScript 'compiler' (almost the opposite of CoffeeScript!) by Rico Sta. Cruz. You can check out a live demo here and there's a link to the source on GitHub too. It could be a handy porting and/or learning tool in the long term.

Tools For jQuery Application Architecture (in Slides)—
Addy Osmani gave a talk about jQuery application architecture at the Web Directions conference in London last month and has put together a great view of his good-looking, informative slides. They work on their own without the talk and he shares some related links on the page too.

How Prototypal Inheritance Really Works—
This article by Christopher Chedeau was popular on HN and Reddit this week and it looks into the whole topic of inheritance with JavaScript's prototype-based system. It wasn't without its detractors though, so the next link (below) is to a Hacker News discussion of the post.

jQuery Color v2 Beta 1 Released—
Back in 2007 the jQuery Color Plugin was released and it's been giving us color-based animations ever since. Now the jQuery team are preparing a second version which adds an API, RGBA, HSLA, and many other features. The beta is here.

Plax: Parallax Elements in your jQuery—
Plax is a jQuery plugin that makes it 'super easy' to parallax elements on your pages based on the mouse position. It's only a visual effect but it can be quite striking when done right.

Step: Control Flow To Step Through Logic—
Step is a simple control-flow library for Node.js that makes parallel execution, serial execution, and error handling painless. It introduces a 'Step' function that accepts any number of functions as arguments and runs them in serial order using the passed in 'this' context as the callback to the next step.

CodeSchool Unveils jQuery Air: An Interactive jQuery Course—
CodeSchool is an interactive tutorial site which had a roaring success with its Rails for Zombies course. Now they've just released 'jQuery Air', a jQuery course by Jeff Casimir that takes you from 0-60 in learning jQuery in CodeSchool's inimitable interactive style. It does cost money though but check out the preview video.